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COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 

POEMS BY 

ARAD JOY SEBRING 

Author of Faith in Song 




BOSTON 
RICHARD G. BADGER 

The Gorham Press 
1905 



Copyright 1905 by Arad Joy Sebring 
All Rights Reserved 



LiBflAay of i. 


.ONGHESS 


fwv tioptu 


iletoiveu 


JUL 13 


I9U5 








Printed at 

THE GORHAM PRESS 

Boston, U. S. A. 



This little book is affectionately inscribed to my 
niece, Elizabeth Sebring; whose kindly and appreci- 
ative interest in my work, and efficient help in pre- 
paring coPy for the press, have added greatly to my 
pleasure in composing these verses for the reading 
public. 



CONTENTS. 

Happy New Year 7 

Why a God ? lO 

The Twenty-third Psalm i6 

What is Life? i8 

The Master Fact 21 

The Flower I Prize 24 

The Power of the Church 26 

Thy Kingdom Come 29 

Mission of the Church 32 

"Hath Done What She Could" 35 

The Ample Price 38 

Which Rather Be ? 42 

Supremacy of Christ 45 

Amen, of Lord's Prayer 61 



HAPPY NEW-YEAR 

When Time has set the shadow of 

His frown upon the hills, 
And cut the rocky curses for 

The torrents and the rills ; 
And belted hist'ry's landscape with 

His russet swath of death, 
A happy new-year then I wish 

To all who share my breath. 

When Time has plucked the sun from out 

His chariot of blaze, 
And veiled the moon in blood, and rolled 

The skies in darkest maze, 
I wish you all a glad retreat 

Beneath the mighty wing 
Of Him who sends Archangel forth 

The end of time to sing. 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



When throne of judgment shall be set, 

And nations gathered there, 
And metes and bounds of men are changed 

For standards only fair, 
When theories of joy are weighed 

In light of spirit world. 
When seconds sweep of cycles take. 

And points to eons whirled — 

When lifetimes, in celestial flight, 

But compass plans of love, 
And human nature grows to grasp 

The wealth of Home Above, 
I wish you then a new-year's gift 

From Hand divinely free. 
With welcome broad as Heaven's plains. 

Beside the glassy sea. 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



When garnered riches of our God, 

Revealed in days of old, 
And Calvary's purchase-price are set 

In jeweled crown of gold, 
When King in beauty shall have clothed 

Himself in robes of light, 
And trump of God shall clear proclaim 

The end of world's black night — 

And orchestra of angel hosts 

The jubilee of grace 
Shall ring from Heaven's eternal heights, 

For Adam's ransomed race — 
I wish you all a diadem 

That makes your title strong 
To sit on thrones of sceptered right. 

And reign through ages long. 



WHY A GOD? 



Why think I that there is a God, 

When eye to Him is blind? 
Why heed with reverence His voice, 

When ear no sound can find? 
Whence comes the mystic touch of God 

Upon my quickened soul. 
And makes me tremble at the thought 

I stand in His control? 

His ownership in lowing herd 

I may with grace, suspect; 
The waving harvests, full and free. 

His kindly hand reflect — 
And none the less in brain or arm, 

That plows and sows and reaps, 
Do I observe Creative Force 

That thinks and makes and keeps. 



10 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



His genial providence I feel 

In warmth of noonday sun ; 
In paths of planets I behold 

His midnight sway begun; 
I see His hand outstretched to stay 

Destroying angel's wing, 
That growing ear he shall not smite, 

Nor blight nor mildew bring. 

I see Him ride in regal state 

On beam of morning light, 
In rustling forest hear His step, 

In nature see His might; 
I trace Him in the smiling tint 

That decks the flower's cheek; 
I know Him in the thunderstorm 

That crowns the mountain peek. 



II 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Thus from effect to cause I climb 

Up to supremest height; 
In empire universal reigns 

The God of truth and light — 
From forms the microscope reveals 

In tiniest water-home, 
To where leviathan defies 

The rolling billows foam — 

From mote that floats before the gale 

To mightiest worlds that swing 
Through century rounds, and nameless bounds, 

With speed that mocks the wing 
Whereon imagination flies, 

And with momentum vast 
Enough to compass and exhaust 

Man's numbers to the last — 



12 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



From the minutest bud of life 

That springs in vernal sun 
To monarchs of Yosemite, 

Whose roots persistent run 
Far down beneath earth's rocky ribs, 

While rugged branches wave 
Triumphantly in stormy heights, 

Where cyclones roam and rave — 

From eyeless molusk, just alive, 

That crawls in slimy deep 
To great evangel round the throne, 

Winging his joyous sweep — 
Through every inch of space and time. 

In every atom that exists, 
In every spark of spirit, too, 

That in His honor glists — 



13 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Throughout the universe I trace 

The grand, celestial, march 
Of Him who spake life into life 

And sprung the boundless arch ; 
And where the gates of light lift up 

Their everlasting greet 
He sets His throne and marshals all 

In glory at His feet. 

Upon St. Peter's towering dome 

A fly unheeding lights, 
And dreams not of the rounded form 

That swells to heavenly heights; 
But architect who planned that mold, 

And laid its granite base. 
Knew well the shape and space and span 

That made its stately grace. 



14 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 

Well do I remember, then, 

The temple of God's plan, 
In providence, decree, and breadth, 

Outmeasures thought of man; 
And what to me most blind and dark, 

With mystery pain and fears. 
May be to Him who built the house 

The circle of the years. 

But highest, brightest, clearest proof 

Of God of grace and love, 
I see revealed in God-man Christ, 

Descending from above — 
Responding conscience yields consent, 

Heart answers back, elate ; 
And how can mind do less than bow 

At edicts strong as fate ? 



15 



THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM 

My Shepherd is the Lord himself, 

And hence I shall not want ; 
He makes me lie in pastures green — 

By waters still my haunt! 

My soul downcast He yet restores, 

And leads in paths of right; 
But not for merit of my own — 

His name in glory bright! 

Through death's dark shade my soul must pass, 

In which I'll fear no ill; 
For with me rod and staff Thou art — 

My comfort is Thy will! 

My enemies shall turn to peace 

At table Thou hast spread ; 
My cup with blessing overflow, 

When Thou anoint'st my head. 



i6 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Thy goodness and Thy mercy, too, 
Shall cling to end of life, 

And in Thy house I'll ever dwell 
Beyond the reach of strife. 



(In this I see most surely cast 
God's promise of His Son, 

Who in my darkest, deepest, stress 
Is my Triumphant One). 



17 



WHAT IS LIFE? 

A plant had grown a hundred years, 

E'er blossom saw the light, 
And then savants from realm at large 

Were summoned to the sight — 
Yet once in an eternity 

God plants within your way 
The tree whose blow brings bending low 

The cheer of endless day. 

Your life is great or short or long, 

As by it you exalt 
The god who reigns in things of earth. 

Or Him in purer vault — 
Through bowed by service, years, and gold, 

At slavish toil you plod, 
If life has failed, and earth bewailed. 

Your lack of liege to God. 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



It is not life to whirl and twirl 

In busy nothings round, 
While thought and purpose empty go 

And truth is never found ; 
With law and gospel not inwrought 

Through fiber of the soul, 
With book of blur and God's demur 

Still waiting at the goal. 

To walk treadmill of custom round, 

And wheel of mammon turn. 
To drive the chariot of self, 

Is not in heart to burn 
With words of Christ and works of faith, 

And self-denying grace; 
Which honors bring, while seraphs sing. 

Before the father's face. 



19 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



To climb from fact to fact of God 

In temple of His truth, 
From hall to gallery and dome 

In quest of endless youth, 
To search the wonders of His love 

By pure, celestial, glow, 
To wait in joy, without alloy, 

And great Redeemer know — 

With angel's relish to partake 

At fountain of His love, 
'Mid promised splendors to abide 

In hope of scenes above ; 
And into one sum-total bind 

The deeds to God we give — 
This tells the day, and marks the way, 

To homes where spirits live. 



20 



THE MASTER FACT 

Go search the tombs of ancient past, 
Exhume the treasures, choice. 

Which record holds in rock-locked vaults- 
Release the silent voice — 

Bring glorious names, profound in thought. 
And philosophic lore, 

Bring men who roll of science head 
And reign in natures store — 

Or angel-like in intellect. 

Have dwelt in starry clime ; 
From earth's fourcorners gather well, 

And farthest sweep of time — 
All precious metals, costl}' stones, 

God's richest gifts, but grace, 
And one vast monument erect, 

With genius at its base — 



21 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Its topstone shall be glory-crowned, 

And drip among the clouds, 
Till heavens together shall be scrolled — 

Earth wrapped in flaming shrouds — 
Then, graved upon its glowing front, 

By hand and skill of age, 
"In memory sacred to the best 

That honors history's page" — 

But in the armory of God 

Is lever, strong and tall, 
Which, held in hand that never fails. 

Can overturn it all — 
"The world by wisdom knew not God.' 

Is truth of force so great. 
That highest wisdom, less than His, 

Must sink to endless fate. 



22 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



But who is this from Edom come, 

With garments dyed in blood, 
Divine and human wisely merged 

In one atoning flood ? — 
So deeds of one are deeds of both. 

In mystic virtue wrought, 
And pardon free, and grace supreme, 

By sovereign edict brought. 



23 



THE FLOWER I PRIZE 

Though at my feet may grow and blow 

The flower of beauty rare, 
Whose cultured fragrance is the fruit 

Of years of patient care ; 
\'et on the beetling crag I pluck 

The one I chiefly prize, 
By reason of the toil I've spent 

To wrest it from the skies. 

Its petals drank the early ray, 

While shadow veiled the lawn, 
The scent of Heaven its blossom stored, 

And opal of the dawn ; 
The eye of God its growing tint 

With satisfaction saw. 
And angel pen "obedience" wrote 

To Maker's primal law. 



24 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Thus on the mount of faithful work 

I'd gladly climb and plod, 
And value most the hard-won task 

That brings the smile of God ; 
For well I know there is a height 

Where joys shall spring for aye, 
And gardens radient with love 

Shall grace the upper sky. 

I would that something of their glow 

Might float to nether scenes, 
And exhalations of their life 

Might pierce the cloud that screens 
The zenith's blue from mortal eye, 

And bloom from earthly hand — 
Might here below, mid strife and sin, 

Forecast the Glorious Land. 



25 



THE POWER OF THE CHURCH 

Renewal in God's image stands 

The highest destiny of man ; 
All schemes of genius His demands 

Quite fail to meet, and never can — 
The gathered wisdom of the world 

J^efore His face in vain is hurled. 

High lifted souls in Jesus' light, 
Till they His perfect likeness wear, 

Must be the law of Christian might 
Till Heaven's dayspring, clear and fair, 

Beams out on realms of life divine, 
And makes dead men forever shine. 

No culture merely of the mind. 

No words, with dewy learning bright. 

No manners, polished and refined. 
Ideas many, grave or light. 

No wealth of scientific lore 
Can open free the pearly door. 
26 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



No seer's best plea can Christ replace, 
When broken record is unrolled, 

No travestj' of saving grace 

Can entrance gain within the fold ; 

Historic image count, or weigh. 
For title clear to upper day. 

No attitude, or form, is found, 

No ritual or stately mold. 
No harmony of sweetest sound, 
Can Sovereign Ear in mercy hold. 
Or take the place of Christ's control 

Within the sanctum of the soul. 

No annels of ancestral race. 

No hoar)^ custom, craft, or creed. 

No churchly faith in time or place, 
Heroic fame in word or deed, 

No saintly prayer, or priestly plea, 

May dare intrude twixt Christ and thee. 
27 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



No chink or chime of golden chain, 

Of apostolic link or length, 
Can dull the ear, or foil the reign, 

Of Him who is the joy and strength 
Of men who stand on Zion's height, 

And rescue souls from endless night. 

And when the Church, amid the strife. 
Leans on these outward signs of truth, 

Decrepitude has seized her life. 

Gray hairs usurped the crown of youth- 

Her withered visage, pale and wan. 
Her power lost, her glory gone. 



28 



THY KINGDOM COME 

Within the deepest fountains 

That flow with life or death; 
In highest, baldest, mountains. 

That chill with Arctic breath ; 
In truest, heart-deep, feeling, 

Which sin and darkness rue. 
Thy kingdom come with healing. 

And health and joy renew. 

Thy kingdom in experience 

Of Christ's redeeming love. 
The sinner's great deliverance. 

The solace from above; 
In hopes that rise to Heaven, 

Thy power and love display ; 
And nerve by Spirit given 

For flight to endless day. 



29 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



In filial, free, submission 

To Father's holy will, 
We lay in true contrition 

Our wants before Thee still — 
Please change the bristling fortresses 

Of Thine afflictive hand 
To golden-towered palaces 

Of our Celestial Land. 

Thus reign in love unbounded, 

Work in us Thy clear will, 
And let our hearts be sounded 

By plum-line of Thy skill ; 
That we in turn, most loyal. 

With heavenly thrill love Thee, 
And men, by ruling royal, 

As self would favored be. 



30 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Then rule, in faith appearing, 

In proof of things unseen — 
Thy voice within our hearing 

Can only glory mean — 
Thus break upon our vision 

Worlds unrevealed before, 
And spread the scenes elysian 

Where seraphim adore. 



31 



MISSION OF THE CHURCH 

'Tis not of Christ, with girdled robe, 

She passes on the other side. 
When fellow traveler on the road 

With reeking wounds has nearly died — 
And thus denies her Master's call 

To lift from ruin of the fall. 

In ranks of trade, where men contend 
For triumph on the field of gain, 

Example, true, must ready set 

Of golden rule and truth unfeign; 

That in the barter of the world 

The standard high shall be unfurled — 

To plow and anvil, spindle, loom. 

To bear glad news, Redeemer born — 

To kitchen, laundry, needle room. 
To echo song of brightest morn ; 

And then the sad but glad refrain 
Of Christ in saving pity slain — 

32 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Where child of suffering has lain, 
With help and healing all benign ; 

To ease the heart of aching strain, 
And fill Avith sympathy divine, 

The great Physician she must bring, 
And make the day of darkness sing. 

She must descend to den of thieves, 
With lamp of truth and light of grace, 

While souls from prison she relieves. 
And sets them free before God's face; 

That halleluiahs they may hymn 
In concert with the cherubim — 

Ascend to legislative hall, 

And lay her sacred, high, behest 

On hearts of men whom millions call 
To hold in trust their earthly best ; 

And build a state, supremely great, 
To last till end of time and fate — 

33 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



On spire of world's best learning lift 
The torch of heavenly life and light; 

That seer and teacher's highest gift 

Be touched with coal from heavenly height ; 

And hand of a divine arrest 

Impose on reason's guilded crest — 

In realm of pride and fashion go, 

Her signet seal of saving love, 
Bring high imaginations low 

At feet of Him who reigns above — 
And fetch the tribute of the kings 

To grace her hand with jeweled rings. 



34 



"HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD" 

Mark 14:8 

The meaning of an infant's cry, 

And sweep of cherub's flight, 
The least and most that thinking souls 

Embrace within their might, 
Are in the great Redeemer's words, 

Made lamp and light to feet 
That in the way of brightning day 

Would heavenly portals greet. 

They prompt to ministries of love 

In homes of joy and health. 
And in the hovels of the poor 

Bespeak affection's wealth; 
In palaces of cultured pride 

The stately form unbend, 
And spirit mild and undefiled 

In loving service send. 



35 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Thus what she could was what she did, 

With noiseless, midnight, tread, 
And sum'ning angel at her hand 

Beside the dying bed — 
Maternal prayers she freely gave 

That Christ would soul endow. 
While children slept and mother wept 

O'er darling's fevered brow. 

The words of Christ but simply tell 

Of height and depth of thought. 
Which truth and grace alone can awake 

In hearts by Spirit taught — 
Of alabaster box unsealed. 

Of faith and love benign. 
Which down the wend of ages spend 

An increase all divine. 



36 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Thus in her pathway missions spring — 

Her dusky sisters know — 
And dewdrops of millennial morn 

In sparkling promise glow — 
While faithful Christ's commending words 

In loving accents ring, 
"Let her alone, for she hath shown, 

The faith My mercies bring." 



37 



THE AMPLE PRICE 

We love to talk of "gates ajar," 

But who shall enter there? 
The portals of eternal life, 

Shall all unbidden share? 
We well remember naught of sin 

Can ever there be seen, 
Where angels tread with timid step, 

And saints with modest mien. 

The Father's house has never been 

In pride by payment bought, 
Admission there may never be 

With earthly treasure sought. 
Tis not that He who made the skies 

Could set His truth aside. 
And with unpardoned rebels think 

Forever to reside. 



38 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Shall we our boasted morals bring, 

And show before the throne, 
When perfect love, as law demands, 

Can meet the case alone? 
Shall gold of nations we present, 

And gems of every land ? 
"Take these things hence," the King of kings 

Shall then with scorn command. 

Shall we for right to enter there 

The zones of earth display. 
And cattle from a thousand hills 

Upon His altar lay? 
'Tis not the blood of bulls and goats 

Can expiate the sign 
Where satan sets the burning scar, 

His booty to define. 



39 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Shall we in search the heavens mount 

And Jupiter arrest, 
And at the feet of Justice cast 

The sky's resplendent best? 
At judgment trump the stars shall fall, 

Nor place for them abide, 
For sight of sin their light defiles, 

And they in blackness hide. 

Will angels stand and vouch for us, 

And swing the welcome door. 
When He who dowered spirits vast 

Bestowed on them no more 
Than in return, with faithful praise, 

They endless ages span. 
And Gabriel naught can ever spare 

To offset sin of man. 



40 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Deep in philosophy of life, 

As in God's plan above, 
Not angel's nature took on him 

The Christ of saving love ; 
But nature human to Himself 

Did Sovereign Grace assume. 
That price of priceless worth might stand 

Against the sinner's doom. 



The gates of God are waiting wide. 

Their Keeper calls us in ; 
He who unbars their massive weight 

Most freely pardons sin ; 
And bids us but believe and live 

And share the conquest won — 
For Olivet and Calvary 

Have yielded to the Son. 



41 



WHICH RATHER BE? 

A thousand miles from nearest 

Where name of Christ is known, 
There lives a man whose clearest 

Light falls upon hewn stone. 
For more than he can number 

His generations past 
Lie wrapped in heathen slumber, 

To prove his pagan caste. 

The language, custom, letters. 

Of all his kith and kin, 
Have wound their steely fetters 

Around his heart within; 
And shed their baleful twilight 

Upon his darkened way. 
And won his steps to midnight 

By false, delusive, ray. 



42 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



'Mid fumes of gall and wormwood, 

'Twixt vicious millstones brayed, 
God's image dashed from manhood, 

And devil's die inlaid — 
We hardly dare to follow, 

Lest from our hearts arise 
Acquittal, false and hollow. 

From statute, just and wise. 



Another I discover 

Within our favored land, 
On whom the blessings hover 

Of many a praying band ; 
Whose line of race descent 

Runs back to mem'ry's verge, 
In covenant-faith consent. 

From where the years emerge — 



43 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



All sealed in Name Eternal 

At pure baptismal fount ; 
On lap of faith maternal, 

Matured for Zion's Mount; 
By Sabbath music hallowed, 

By love from bending skies — 
Most sure his heart is mellowed 

By grace divinely wise. 

Yet at his Maker's alter 

He bends no reverent knee, 
At Calvary he'll falter. 

And yield no suppliant plea — 
Then tell in truth and kindness 

Which lot you'd rather know. 
The Hindu's groping blindness 

Or man's rejected glow? 



44 



SUPREMACY OF CHRIST 

I grant you that on nature's face 

The God of power shines; 
Yet had I naught but nature's light 

Within these close confines, 
I'd stand where all the heathen world 

Its blinded record makes — 
The race in ruin, soul in death. 

Its law of being breaks. 

To sacred annels I appeal, 

At central source to find 
Prophetic proof of Him who stands 

For law and love combined ; 
That in my most distressing needs 

I may to refuge fly; 
And when my heart cries out for love, 

It knows the Brother nigh. 



45 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



I see Him as he sweeps the range 

Of sacred hist'ry's sphere, 
And know Him as he fills the eye 

Of Inspiration, clear; 
I hear Him as he speaks to me 

From grand and kingly height, 
And heed Him as he wins my heart 

By glow of heavenly light. 

But tell me not that this is wrought 

By any sense of mine. 
For in the scheme of grace Fm sure 

Are plan and will divine — 
For in the sacrifice He made 

Was one essential price, 
Without which justice could not stand, 

And love find no device. 



46 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



I know quite well that other men, 

Of distant mental scan, 
As world's Columbuses, have spied 

The continents for man — 
Demosthenes and Ciceroes 

Of olden time have taught, 
And Washingtons and Gladstones 

Of later days have wrought — 

I know the patriot soldier, too. 

Upon the field of strife, 
For country dear, and native hearth. 

Has nobly laid his life; 
But their achievements never reach 

Quite down to man's last need ; 
While sovereign Christ with grace evokes 

The springs of heart and deed. 



47 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



The ages have their might combined 

To make the power of kings, 
The Cjesars reign by aid derived 

From force which history brings; 
Victorian eras rise and fall 

On waves of public state, 
Which emperors and queens record 

In archives of the great. 

The Grants and Lincolns, all too few. 

Whose honored names we praise, 
Could not have been but for the wave 

That bore heroic days — 
The century through of hearts that bound 

With freedom's hallowed song, 
And unity of state with state 

Which must the peal prolong. 



48 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Not thus, not thus, the King of kings ; 

The history maker, He; 
Before whose royal reign the hearts 

Of men must loyal be — 
The old Northmen, with clotted locks, 

Embarked in armed hulls, 
And sallying forth with murderous hand, 

Drank blood from human skulls — 

He taught the golden rule, and touched 

With finger of His grace. 
And changed the cruel, savage, horde 

Into a Christian race — 
And Briton of the ancient day, 

Unmoved by battle steel, 
He won in reverent faith to him, 

And joy in human weal. 



49 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



From Christendom of elder world, 

From nations great and small, 
Enlisted in one serried host 

And marching at His call, 
Came men thus brought to bow 

At feet of Conquering Lord, 
From o'er the stormy sea to build 

A home with reverence stored. 

And from the vantage ground thus gained 

By Him who marshals hearts, 
A tribute to the King of kings 

Is laid on distant parts — 
Millennial inheritance 

Shall make His reign of love. 
For heathen world is pledged to Him 

By fiat from above. 



50 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 

And when all correlated truth 

Of Scriptures, great and grand, 
In orderly array is set 

By logic, pen and hand, 
He still remains God-christ the same, 

Of old, to-day, for aye — 
The soul and sinew, bone, and joint, 

Of schemes that never die. 

Theologies may rise and fall. 

With sweep and surge of mind ; 
We call them old or new to suit 

The temper of our kind ; 
Yet underneath the fulcrum, strong, 

Where all true systems brace, 
Is God incarnate in his Son, 

With purposes of grace. 



SI 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



And would we make the world to know, 

And heed our gospel call? 
We'll win by placing at the front 

Triumphant Christ of all — 
If satan lifts his vicious head, 

And human hearts refrain, 
We know that truth shall crown His sway, 

And righteousness His reign. 

'Tis true, no vet'ran armies rise 

To march at His command ; 
No dynasty of kings he founds, 

Nor liege of subject lands; 
But summons kings and priests to God, 

A dynasty of love, 
Who shall his victory partake 

In earth and worlds above. 



52 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



His law of love, by man announced, 

In words of false acclaim, 
Had whistled down the empty wind. 

In idle accents named, 
And in the wilderness of thought 

Had vanished by degrees; 
Or stifled by the moral filth 

In every tainted breeze. 

But ah! the life, the life, of Christ! 

Down at Whose feet is cast 
The challenge of a jealous world ; 

While back, from first to last. 
He flings triumphantly the quest, 

"Convinceth me of sin?" 
And light from heaven's uplifted gate 

Reveals heart-depth within. 



S3 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



A righteous kingdom would He found, 

Without example, clear? 
Ah no ! the golden rule shines out 

In Him, without a peer. 
And when our race is once upraised 

To level with His height, 
The eye of God shall view the scene, 

And judge it just and right. 

The world's phisopohers have thought, 

But Holy God denied. 
Why in such brilliant contrast he 

With all the world beside? 
In human schemes of knowledge He 

But very little taught; 
The scientists of future times 

Alone in learning wrought. 



54 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



'Twas Galileo who descried 

The earth's revolving round, 
And Kepler measured with his wand 

The midnight starrj' bound. 
Why did not Christ the pen enlist, 

And through all time eclipse 
The orb of letters and of light 

Throughout its vast ellipse? 

I ken it was because He meant 

To blend the lustrous glow 
Of perfect manhood with the God, 

And let it stream below 
Far down the trend and train of time: 

And then, Avith upward sweep. 
Through cycles of an endless age 

Into Celestial Deep. 



55 

l.olQ. 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



When heathen men at Lystra saw 

The miracles of Paul, 
"The gods have come in human form," 

Thej^ shouted, one and all — 
Hut what for them, in wondering fright. 

Imagination won. 
Has come to us in real truth 

In God's incarnate son. 

On drama of so strange a life 

A mystery must have frowned. 
Rut for the radiant afterglow 

Which aw ful Calvar>' crowned ; 
And gathered up and made complete 

The record of His deeds. 
And lent infinity of force 

To great historic creeds. 



56 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Men might have overlaid them all 

With sophistries of time; 
But cross of Christ so high above 

Inventions most sublime 
Has towered all the ages through 

They could not reach its height ; 
But twined around that living cross 

His deeds are fresh and bright — 

As when, long centuries ago, 

From hills of heaven culled, 
His precepts spake the mind of God 

And power of sin annuled — 
For, lifted in the morning sky. 

Of Christian era's day. 
That cross reflected Christ Himself 

In His triumphant sway. 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



'Tis true the heart of man demands 

Men of heroic state ; 
And wiUing masses rally round 

The standards of the great — 
And history is h'ttle more 

Than growth from germs of thought 
Which master minds, of rarest mold, 

Have brought and wrought and taught. 

Hero of heroes, ever stands 

Hero of Calvary's mount; 
Whose dying love for our lost race 

Released the living fount ; 
And men shall with His banner march 

To every clime and shore, 
And gather in rejoicing throngs 

Till time shall be no more. 



58 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



We cannot learn too soon, too well, 

Converting power inheres 
In God's atoning love and grace, 

Which in the cross appears — 
For power and wisdom of our God, 

Displayed for human weal, 
Are centered in the dying pains 

Which man's redemption seal. 

He at whose name all knees shall bow 

Has sent His church abroad, 
And guarded and begird her ranks. 

Which march in reverent laud, 
With principalities of light, 

And powers of matchless strength, 
Which shall command the homage true 

Through all earth's breadth and length. 



59 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



When truth shall over error rise, 

Or right shall wrong transcend; 
However kindles gospel torch 

Till cruelty shall end ; 
Wherever enterprise shall go, 

Illumined by the ray 
Which gleams from Christ, the central sun, 

And makes the darkness day — 

And crowning all with each descent 

Of Holy Ghost, divine. 
Inspiring anew the strains 

Which seraphim design — 
Are but the upward, growing, beams. 

On morning forehead drawn. 
That paint the promises of God 

In hues of heavenly dawn. 



60 



AMEN, OF LORD'S PRAYER 

Amen! Thy name, so let it be 

On heights ethereal placed ; 
With reverence mentioned here below 

From alter, Spirit-graced — 
Let our poor pleas no longer wait, 
But meet us. Lord, at Heaven-gate. 

Amen! Thy name on hallowed lips 

Of all the heavenly train ; 
While struggling hearts of men from earth 

Lift up the glad refrain, 
And Church Triumphant roll the song, 
And angel-host the peal prolong. 

Amen! Let righteous edict reach 
Through all the realms of space — 

From topmost mount to distant star — 
Foot-stool to throne of grace — 

Where saints redeemed and seraphs vie 

To render praise to God on high. 
6i 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Amen ! Let natures, stained in sin, 
Who trackless deserts roam, 

Receive the pardoning ring and robe 
At door of Father's home ; 

And thus enriched, forever laud 

The grace of our redeeming God. 

Amen! Blot out our debts of sin, 

Their record burial give 
In fountain of atoning worth, 

And help us well to live. 
That on humanity abide 
Our own full, free, forgiving, tide. 

Amen ! When powers of darkness reign, 

And blight cast on the soul. 
Then reach thy hand in mercy forth 

And lift us to the goal — 
From sin to Christ, from death to life, 
From toil to conquest in the strife. 
63 



GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 



Amen ! Let now th}' kingdom come ; 

Thy will in earth be done ; 
When men their little best have shown, 

Then glorify thy Son — 
Let earth's dominions at His feet 
In peace with ransomed millions meet. 

Amen! When mind of man has thought, 
Chains clanked, and hearts have bled. 

And myriads bowed, and history grown, 
Fields lost, and crowns have fled, 

Ascend the throne of thrones. Lord ; 

Li love redeem thine ancient word. 



63 



JUL 13 1905 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



018 394 181 1 



